Last Thursday the ICEHOUSE hosted Wendy McGuinness for the Auckland TalentNZ Tour public event. There was a great turn out including contributors from the TalentNZ Journal and increasing support for the TalentNZ Menu of Initiatives as Wendy extended the network to Auckland Councillors and the public.

Auckland certainly doesn’t struggle to attract talented residents to its sandy shores as the business capital of New Zealand. Creating a buzz that Auckland can continue to be a ‘place where talent wants to live’ on an international level is the real test that TalentNZ wanted to address. The presentations started with Wendy’s run through of the Institute’s research on creating a future talent-based economy, looking at global trends as well as New Zealand relevant markets. This presentation was followed by informal talks by four TalentNZ Journal guest speakers: Malcolm Webb from Webb Henderson, Janice Feutz from Aviarc CORE Technology, Hayden Glass from Sapere Research and Shaun Hendy from Auckland University Physics Department and co-author with Sir Paul Callaghan of ‘Get off the Grass’ 2020.  After the presentations guests and attendees partook in some lively discussions around the topic while fueled by drinks, cheese and biscuits and an electric atmosphere courtesy of the ICEHOUSE.

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Wendy McGuinness at The ICEHOUSE